LHC suspends Ruda letter to local govt secretary.

LAHORE -- The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday suspended the operations of a letter written by the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda) to the provincial secretary for local government and community development, asking the latter to stop dealing with the private housing societies or mega commercial infrastructures in its (Ruda) jurisdiction.

Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan passed the order on a civil miscellaneous application filed by Al-Rehman developers in a pending writ petition against the establishment of the Ruda.

Advocate Waqar A. Sheikh appeared on behalf of the petitioner/developer and argued that the Ruda Act 2020 was ultra vires to the Local Government Act 2019 and article 140-A of the Constriction.

He said the establishment of the authority was also in conflict with the provisions of the Lahore Development Authority Act 1975.

The counsel argued that Ruda had written an unlawful letter on April 27, 2021 to the LG secretary, saying a matter relating to the jurisdiction of the authority was pending with the provincial cabinet. He said the letter asked the local government not to entertain the applications of the housing societies and commercial infrastructure falling in the proposed jurisdiction of the Ruda during the pendency of the matter before the cabinet.

Land acquisition already stayed by court

The counsel said that Ruda itself was unconstitutional and based upon regulatory capture and it was made to grab land from farmers and other...